The Olympian Defender's!
by Takeshi-san
Summary: A new Great Prophecy has been foretold! Six young Half-Bloods shall set out on a quest to save, or destroy, the world as we know it! Set after The Heroes Of Olympus series.
1. Introduction

Rated T for Teen, due to possible tobacco, drug and alcohol references, as well as slight language.

Based on Percy Jackson & The Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan

I do not own either said series in any way, never have, and never will.

(Please ask before you use any of my Original Characters. Feel free to PM me.)

The Olympian Defender's!

By Zackery Trueman

Introduction

"Percy! Annabeth!" a familiar voice yelled over-excitedly from behind me and my girlfriends backs.

Annabeth and I turned around, only to be swept up by an 8 foot tall and 4 foot wide lump of Cyclops. My half-brother, Tyson, had picked us up and starting bawling. As far as I could tell he was wearing an (extremely) Big 'n' Tall leather jacket, blue jeans that looked like they belonged on a very obese man, and the biggest T-shirt I'd ever seen.

"Hey big guy, it's nice to see you, too." I tried to say, but between Tyson's massive tears of joy, an almost death-grip hug, and him sweeping us from side to side in his arms (which I don't think was completely on purpose), I wasn't too sure it came out that way. I heard Annabeth try to say something to him as well. I think it had something to do with giving him peanut butter if he let us go.

Finally, after about 10 more seconds of a hug, he let us down. Which, was quite a ways down. We had been hanging at least three feet in the air. "I miss you," he said, wiping a tear out of his eye, "lots of people in Daddies forges, but I still always think about you."

"I know big guy. I'm sorry we haven't I.M.'ed you in a while. You've grown at least a foot since I last saw you! How much peanut butter have you been eating?" I joked.

"Not more than usual…" he blushed, which has very easy to see on his large Cyclops face.

Annabeth giggled to herself. "Percy, he's about the age of a teenager for a Cyclops. He's going through growth spurts, and he's only going to get bigger." She explained with her almost-all-knowing-intelligence.

Tyson smiled widely and asked "Everyone coming?"

"As far as I know, yeah. Grover, Nico, Thalia, and Rachel all said they would be here."

It was 3 o'clock in the morning, and we were outside my mother's apartment, on a fifth-floor ledge (that I was only half sure could take Tyson's weight). I didn't exactly have my own place, and my mother was on vacation, so she let us use it for a meeting the seven of us had planned. Plus, in New York, 3 AM was practically the only time you could sneak an 8 foot Cyclops through the city, even with The Mist shading him from the view of normal humans.

"Here," said another familiar voice.

The three of us turned to our right and saw a teenage girl, with long jet-black hair and electric blue eyes, climbing up the metal stairs to the apartment. Her skin glowed in the moonlight as she walked up to us. She was wearing winter colored camouflage pants, rolled up a few inches past her ankle, a silver t-shirt, and a hooded cloak.

"Thalia!" Annabeth exclaimed before running to give her a hug.

"Shiny lady!" Tyson mumbled innocently.

After Thalia had finished giving Annabeth a hug she walked up to me and gave me a hug as well, before nodding acceptingly at Tyson (at least as accepting as Thalia could be of a Cyclops).

"Where's Nico, Grover and Rachel?" she asked me.

"Should be here soon," I stated, "Grover and Rachel should be coming together, and who knows when Nico'll arrive."

"He'll be here soon enough," she replied, "but, we should go inside. It's going to rain."

"Right," I said as I put my hand in my jeans pocket to grab the key to my mom's apartment, "Come on in."

I unlocked the door and turned on the lights, we all filed into the living room, and Tyson sat on the small loveseat, which was cramped, even with just him. I guess it was better than him standing, seeing as he had to duck just to stand. Thalia, Annabeth and I took the other couch, and there were three more small chairs across from us for Nico, Grover and Rachel when they arrived.

"How are things at Camp?" Thalia asked Annabeth who was sitting next to her.

Before she got a chance to answer there was a knock at the door. _Tell her_, I mouthed to Annabeth. She nodded as I got up to get the door and went back to talking to Thalia.

"Percy!" Grover and Rachel greeted me at the same time.

"Hey G-man," I tried to hold back a laugh, "nice tux! When's the big day?"

Grover was wearing a wedding tuxedo and a top-hat that was at least a foot high. Obviously, his satyr horns had grown too long for most other hats. Rachel was wearing a fancy green sequin dress. Anyone looking at the two of them might think they were some kind of strange couple that was just married.

"Yeah…" he sighed, "Not exactly my style, but it works. And I'm not getting married!"

"Nice dress, Rachel. Everyone but Nico is here, we just have to wait for him."

As we all walked back into the living room Annabeth nodded back to me, letting me know she had told her the news. Thalia was deep in thought as we all took our seats and waited for Nico.

I wish I could say this was going to be a nice, fun, little social gathering between friends, but as most things are in the world of Demigods, it wasn't going to be exactly "fun."

"Hi everyone!" Grover said awkwardly to the room.

Silence, from the group, but I had heard something down the hallway. I reached for my pen-sword, Riptide, which was in my pocket like always. Some of the others must have heard it, too, because Thalia's magic bow and quiver had appeared, and Annabeth had a "show yourself" type of glare on her face.

"I know I'm not completely accepted in most places, but you don't need to attack me."

A young man with a short, black sword walked into the room. He had long black hair and a murderous smile, and wore black jeans, with a blood-red jacket over a black T-shirt.

"Nico," I sighed.

"You left the door unlocked. I took the liberty of letting myself in." he said as he sheathed his Stygian Iron blade.

Tyson let loose a small sigh of relief now that the blade was gone.

"Now that everyone's here, we can start." Thalia reminded the group.

"It must be important. What's going on?" Nico asked.

"We called everyone here so that we could discuss the next Great Prophecy." I stated.

"Well, I don't want anything to do with it. I can tell you that much." Nico yawned.

"Neither do we," Annabeth sighed, "We've been through _two_ great prophecies already."

"We don't have much choice, do we?" Tyson asked.

"Well, no," I reassured him, "But, we can try to stay out of it as much as possible. The truth is, it's quite worrying. Even though we've beaten the Titans, Gaia and her Giants, and hundreds of monsters, the prophecy is seriously worrying."

"Some of us haven't even heard the prophecy." Nico reminded everyone.

"Rachel? Can you recite it again for everyone who hasn't heard the prophecy? I haven't either." Thalia asked.

"Yeah. I guess so," Rachel sighed, "Here goes nothing…"

Rachel closed her eyes for a few seconds, once they opened again they glowed green and she started emanating green mist, which, honestly, really went with her dress.

"_Six young half-bloods shall come to discover,_

_A Goddess mother they must recover_

_Without all six, none shall remain_

_Together or apart, all will feel pain_

_For the long road they will have travelled,_

_Will only show a greater problem unraveled_

_Without these six, the Gods surely fall and tumble_

_A new enemy attempts to make the world crumble_"

There was silence for a few seconds as everyone thought about the lines of the Great Prophecy.

"It can't be about us," Thalia broke the silence, "It says '_six young half-bloods' _we aren't so young anymore. It's been five years since the last Great Prophecy. I'm technically 31. Percy, you and Annabeth are 28. Plus, only Percy, Annabeth, Nico and I are half-bloods. That's only four-"

"Remember, Thalia," Rachel interrupted, "You can't always try to predict the full extent of any Prophecy until it happens. But, speaking as the Oracle, I do not think it involves any of the half-bloods here. If it did, the Oracle wouldn't have spoken through me."

"We've all passed our training. We only go to Camp Half-Blood now when we are needed. But, we have other things we must discuss. Do we all agree to stay out of this Great Prophecy as much as possible?" I asked everyone.

"I was already going to. So, yeah, I'll stay out of it." Nico assured us.

"As much as I can, I will," Thalia sighed, "But I still must obey Lady Artemis."

"I don't think it really involves the rest of us, but I will," Grover said.

"If that what Percy thinks we should do." Tyson added.

"Good enough for me," I nodded.

"Percy, the other thing…" Annabeth reminded me.

"Right…" I remembered, "Annabeth and I recently ran into a group of half-bloods that might need to be kept an eye on. Both for the protection of Camp, and of everyone else."


	2. Chapter One

The Olympian Defender's!

By Zackery Trueman

Chapter One

Micah Nolan

It was early afternoon on a Friday. I was sitting in my dimly lit Cabin on my bed, which I had just made. I was wearing my Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and a black and white skirt. Suddenly, the door burst open, and my visitor instantly felt cold. The only thing that warmed the cabin was the Greek Fire that was lit 24/7, but most other people still felt cold when they were here.

"Have I told you how much I _hate_ your cabin, Micah?" Tom shivered.

"Eh, only about a thousand times. The Hades Cabin, Cabin Thirteen, it's supposed to be _chilling_ and _dead_," I teased, "What's up?"

Tom was a son of Ares, the God of war, and one of my closest friends. He was pretty much next in line for the Ares Cabin, second only to Clarisse, the Ares Cabin camp counselor. Tom has completed five quests successfully, and even fought in the war against Gaia and her giants. He was also the tallest Demi-god at Camp Half-Blood, not including his two-inch-tall spiky red hair. He also had strong brown eyes, tan skin, wore red jeans with his orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, and always had some kind of weapon on him. Like, today he had his "favorite" battle axe (he called every weapon he saw his "favorite").

"We've got two new arrivals; we think they'll be claimed soon," he informed me.

"Sweet, let's go!"

I hopped off my bunk and walked out of my cabin with Tom. We started heading down to the beach, where I was sure most of the other campers would be crowding our new arrivals. I was the only camper in the Hades Cabin, except my big brother Nico, but he was barely ever at camp. He didn't like the place much.

"By the way, where are Dean, Skylar, and Scott?" I asked him.

"Pretty boy was over at the archery range, I went and told him and he should be there already," he started, referring to our friend Dean.

Dean was a son of Aphrodite, and for some reason no one could figure out, was the best archer at Camp, even better than the Apollo kids. Which was very strange for an Aphrodite kid, because while most Aphrodite kids would be gossiping and accessorizing, Dean would be at the archery range.

"Scott and Skylar were over at the Nemesis Cabin, as usual. Scott said they didn't want to come," Tom finished with a sigh.

Scott and Skylar were our last two good friends, a son and daughter of Nemesis, the Goddess of balance and retribution. They were twins, and the only children of Nemesis at Camp. Honestly, we knew more about Scott than we did of Skylar. He hung out around us, and she really only did the same to be with Scott. They were pretty much joined at the hip, but Skylar barely said a word. But, they were _extremely_ good swordsmen.

"Oh, okay, so, I guess we'll meet up with them later," I sighed.

Dean and I were the youngest of the group at 15 years old. Tom was the oldest at 17, and Scott and Skylar were 16. Tom took me and Dean on our first quest last year, and he had already done a few quests with Scott and Skylar already, so we all joined a small group together as friends. I've been at Camp for almost three years now, Dean, Scott and Skylar have been here for four, Tom for five.

Yeah, Tom's done a quest every year, he's a big overachiever. Apparently a short time before I came to Camp, the Gods started handing out an average of three quests a year. No one knows why, not even Chiron, our activities director. I've heard before the Gods started doing this that a quest was really rare and often much more deadly.

When we got close to the Big House, which was where the two new arrivals were, we saw Dean in the distance. Surprisingly, there were only about four other campers there, plus two younger people and an adult one, which I assumed were the newcomers and their keeper.

"Hey Micah! Hello Tom," Dean shouted to the both of us.

When we met up with him he had some sweat left in his blonde hair from archery practice. He was wearing his orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, like most other campers did, with his bow slung over his back. Dean wore blue nylon jogging shorts and old-style Greek sandals, and had deep blue eyes you could almost get lost in.

"'Sup Pretty Boy?" Tom laughed as he put Dean in a headlock and gave him a noogie.

I rolled my dark black eyes and walked around the two boys, who were now wrestling, so I could get a look at the new campers. I hoped they are from a minor God or Goddess. I like the misfits and outcasts.

All of a sudden, I heard a girl screaming about what seemed like everything and anything. She was saying things like "Where the hell are we Mr. Lenard?" or "Why the hell are we here?" It all kind of reminded me of my first day here, too.

"Now calm down Ms. Callan. I assure you, all will be explained in time," said the older man.

"This is just the greatest day of my life," the girl barked "first we get attacked by some thing, then we get kidnapped by our Drama Teacher, and THEN we wind up HERE. Wherever HERE is, I might add."

"Well," said the boy on the other side of their keeper, "at least we're here and safe now, Andy. There aren't any weird _things_ attacking us."

"Johnny, you're way too carefree most of the time. I, on the other hand, want to know everything about what is going on, so I can be in control of my life."

The boy put his hands in his jeans pockets and took a few random articles out of them and started playing with them randomly. His face was giving off a half ashamed half shy look. The Keeper just sighed. I think he was more annoyed than the girl, Andy, was.

I walked closer to them and the other four remaining campers split in other directions away from me. Love it when they did that.

"Hmmmm…" I sighed as I stared at the both of them.

The girl was wearing a long sleeved green and blue striped shirt, and white khaki pants. She had hair that went down to her mid back, which was blonde and layered. As I stared at her Andy glared back at me in confusion, which gave me a good look at her eyes. Stormy grey.

"Yup. Athena. I'm almost sure." I laughed, lost interest, and looked to the boy.

"Why does EVERYONE at this camp say that to me? I'm so confused, and I REALLY hate being confused," Andy sighed.

"Yeah, get used to it. Hating being confused is another Athena thing," I said as I continued looking at the boy, "Though, you probably don't get confused often."

"Yeah. I don't. If it wasn't for my dyslexia and ADHD, I'd be a straight A student. But, why is that any of your business anyway?"

"Eh," I shrugged, "I never asked."

The boy, Johnny, was now looking back at me. He had tan skin, dark brown hair, and analytic eyes.

"Can't be too sure yet. But, I'd say-"

I couldn't finish my prediction. I was interrupted by our activities director, the centaur, Chiron. He was in his magical wheelchair to prevent any scares from the new campers. "Micah, I will take things from here, thank you. Tom, Dean, back to your own business, please."

I went back over to Tom and Dean, silently laughing to myself about the newcomers.

"So, Micah, um…" Dean paused, "How 'bout the Hades cabin joins up with the Aphrodite Cabin for capture the flag tonight?"

Dean had been asking me the same question every week, and I always had the same response. "Nope. The Hades, Nemesis, Athena, Dionysus, Hecate, Hypnos, and Demeter Cabin's have been fighting against the Apollo, Aphrodite, Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Hephaestus, and Hermes Cabin's on capture the flag for a year now. I like it that way."

"And that makes things the most balanced," said a familiar voice.

I turned around and saw Scott and Skylar standing on the Big Houses wooden deck. Scott was smiling and standing over the railing looking to the three of us. Skylar was off leaning on the walls of the Big House, in the shadows.

"Hey guys," Skylar nodded, then went back to her own world.

They were matching, as always, wearing their Camp T-shirts and brown pants, with their swords strapped to their back, a gift from their mother, Nemesis. The only thing they wore different from each other was their wristbands, that were half red half black. Scott wore his on his right wrist; Skylar's on her left wrist. They each had dark skin, like a Native American, and piercing green eyes. Scott wore his brown hair short, to his neck, and Skylar's hair was down to her shoulders.

"What'd we miss?" Scott asked.

"Eh, not much," I sighed, "you two ready for capture the flag tonight?"

"Of course," Scott beamed

Skylar conveniently avoided the question.

"Want to get some practice in beforehand?" Tom asked, posing a challenge to Scott, whom he had a friendly rivalry with.

"Oh boy," I sighed, "this'll be bad…"

"Micah, Skylar and I against you, Dean, and you can choose another person so it's 3 on 3. If anyone gets knocked out or gives up, their team loses." Scott stated.

"Fine by me. To make it fair, I choose Jill, the daughter of Zeus."

"Tom," I sighed, "Jill is only _nine_. I know she's a child of the Big Three, but isn't she a little young?"

Not to mention how disappointed Chiron will be when he finds out we fought and someone got knocked out.

"She's young, but she's powerful. She'll be fine. It's not like we're going to kill each other."

"Alright," Scott interrupted, "Meet at the Arena in 15 minutes."

Tom and Dean ran off towards the cabins to get Jill, and Scott, Skylar and I started heading to the Arena.

"What's the plan?" I asked.

"Well, Dean'll try to get us from afar, so I figure you can storm him. Me and Sky'll take care of the rest, so just worry about Dean."

"Alrighty."

When we got to the Arena, it took the others a few minutes to get here. I guess Jill agreed to help them, but she still looked a bit scared about going up against older Demigods. Or, maybe she was just scared because she was in the same general vicinity as a child of Hades. Can't say that's the first time someone's been scared of me.

"Alright. Let's get going," Tom said as he pulled out his two-handed battle axe.

The six of us lined up across from each other. Scott and Tom eyed each other menacingly, like they were trying to figure out the best way to chop each other open.

"GO!" Tom yelled before hacking at Scott.

Dean and I both ran back a few feet. Jill was trying to fight off Skylar. Tom and Scott were clashing, but Scott always had the generic upper hand. You see, Scott and Skylar's blades were special. Nemesis had given them the blades before their first quest on their 13th birthday, and the blades were half Celestial Bronze and half regular steel, so they were twice as effective against half-bloods.

Dean drew his bow and aimed at me; before he shot I focused my energy on the ground, more specifically _under_ the ground, inside my father's domain. Three skeletal warriors came out of the ground. Three was pretty much my limit if I wanted to stay conscious. As Dean shot a skeletons shield blocked it.

"Storm him," I ordered the warriors.

Now, you might think someone would have piped up and said "not fair!" or something like that, but everyone here knows I've never found a weapon that fit me. Instead, I fight using mainly my demigod powers. When my brother, Nico, came to Camp one time we dueled.

"You've got a lot of power as a demigod with your ability to summon skeletons. A lot more than me, that's for sure. But, eventually you'll need to find a weapon. You'll overexert yourself and pass out in a fight if you rely only on those abilities," Nico had told me.

Dean was running around as quick as he could, shooting wildly at my skeletons, but it didn't seem to have much effect. Tom and Scott were still at a stalemate. Jill was panting, trying to keep up with Skylar and her quick strikes, dodging and parrying with her own blade as best she could.

Finally, Jill saw an opening and put her hand on Skylar's leg, shocking her wildly. The effect of the lightning on Skylar's hair made it look like she belonged in a disco club, but she quickly retaliated and got another strike in on Jill, piercing her shoulder. The problem with this fight was that Skylar was without mercy, even if we were just practicing. Dean apparently felt the same way; because he gave me a look like _help her_.

"Sky, switch me?" I asked.

She shrugged, slightly reluctantly, and charged Dean.

"Pull back, and defend your master!" I ordered my skeletons.

The skeletons rushed towards me as fast as they could. Scott didn't like how I had changed the plan. "STICK TO THE PLAN!" He tried to yell, but all I heard was a _thwack_ as Tom smacked him on from the side with the blunt of his axe. Scott was on the ground now, but I didn't have much time to help him because Jill was now rushing towards me, fighting off my skeletons.

"Hold her," I ordered.

I ran to Scott, who was now dodging axe hacks from the ground. Skylar was hacking and slashing through arrows, shot by Dean, trying to get closer to him. _Not going to kill each other,_ Tom had said. Riiiiiiiiight

"Damn it!" Scott grunted, trying to get on his feet.

I willed the ground beneath them to open, creating a small chasm that temporarily separated the two of them.

"Fight, Scott!" I said.

He nodded in response and got back up again to continue fighting before the chasm closed. I was starting to feel woozy and tired. But, I knew I could at least make it through this practice session. Hopefully.

I turned my attention back to my skeletons. Jill had just successfully slashed through one of them, which was now lying as a pile of bones on the ground, slowly dissipating. Surprisingly, Jill was doing pretty well, but I wasn't done yet. I focused my energy again on my father's domain, summoning another skeleton to replace the dead, err - I guess _re_-dead, one.

"I'm not gonna give up yet, Micah!" Jill announced.

"Don't get cocky, Daughter of Zeus," I sighed.

Little did I know, Tom had been right for a change. Jill put her blade up to the air, still surrounded by skeletons, and a large lightning bolt crashed down onto all three of my skeletal minions, straight through Jill as well. Now, all three of my pets were lying in piles of ash on the ground. She was young but she was powerful.

I moved my arms upwards, palms down with my fingers apart, like I was controlling invisible puppet strings. I was going to summon more skeletons to fight Jill, but then I realized something. She was just standing there, unmoving and unresponsive.

I walked up to her and poked her. What in Tartarus else was I going to do? I have control over death, not life. All I heard was a tired "Uhhhh…" and she fell over backwards, and started snoring. I mumbled to myself, "Well, she's not dead…"

No one around me stopped fighting. I guess they didn't count this as a "knock out," seeing as how she was only taking a well deserved nap. Lucky. Wish I was napping right now. Too bad for me, we had a fight to finish.

I decided to help take down Dean. Here's the thing, you _don't_ join a duel between Tom and Scott. It's a bad idea, unless you think things through completely. Skylar was still trying to inch her way towards Dean, but his fancy footwork and quick running kept her at bay.

"HEY! PRETTY BOY!" I yelled.

It worked. I grabbed his attention for just a second, and willed skeletal hands and arms out of the ground, grabbing his feet and holding him in place. Skylar advanced on him, sprinting at him with her sword ready. "!" he moaned, his eyes darting wildly trying to figure the best way out of the situation he was in.

Skylar slashed from the side, straight at his chest, but Dean was still quick. He leaned himself backwards, so much that his head was almost on the ground, successfully dodging her strike. Bow still in hand, he drew another arrow and almost fired, but Skylar cut the tip of the arrow off. Dean shot the arrow, only to be bounced off her uselessly. Dean tried to wriggle out of my skeleton trap, but to no avail.

Tom and Scott were still going one-on-one. They each were sweaty and covered in cuts. They had been equally skilled the whole time I've known them. What Scott lacked in strength, compared to Tom, he made up in intelligence. Even so, they were still evenly matched.

"AHK!" Dean yelled as he dodged a few more strikes from Skylar.

"C'mon Pretty Boy," Tom said as he parried a strike from Scott, "I know you can fight better than that! Or are you scared?"

"GET ME OUTTA HERE!" Dean yelled.

Dean is necrophobic, which is kind of interesting, because he is perfectly fine around me. The Hades Cabin still gives him the willies, and he'll run screaming from anything dead. I decided to be even meaner to him. This was still a battle after all. I summoned a skeleton and had it give him a hug.

"MICAH! THIS IS SOOOO NOT COOL!"

I couldn't help it. I was now laughing harder than any child of Hades should laugh. Dean was as pale as the things he feared most, shaking uncontrollably, and desperately trying to get the skeletal limbs off from around him.

"Just give up," I said, finally getting a hold of myself.

"I GIVE UP! JUST GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!"

I pushed my skeletal minion, and the arms, back into the Underworld. Dean was shaking slightly, but he would be okay. He had kneeled down with his hands on the ground getting a hold of himself. Scott and Tom stopped fighting and started to catch their breath.

"I need a nap," I yawned.

"I need a shower," Dean mumbled to no one in particular.

"Good match," Tom panted, "this week's capture the flag should be good."

"You okay, Dean?" I tried to sound as sympathetic as possible, which for a child of Hades is really hard.

"Yeah. I'm fine," he managed, "but I'm staying away from you in capture the flag."

"Alright," I laughed, "Can you give some Ambrosia to Jill to get her back on her feet?"

"Sure thing. Right after I get some for myself… I still have that illegal stash for emergencies…"

"Just be careful with that stuff, man," Scott reminded him.

"Well, I'm going for a nap before tonight. See you all there," I yawned again, trying to stay awake.

"Just be ready for capture the flag tonight, Micah," Scott yelled to me, "Remember the plan!"

"I know. _That _plan I'll stick to, and we'll win for sure."

"Great. They got _another_ plan," Dean groaned from the ground.

I left them in the Arena to squabble. I really needed a nap to restore my energy for capture the flag. Red Team was going to lose again, for the 15th time in a row.


	3. Chapter Two

The Olympian Defender's!

Chapter Two

Micah Nolan

"I'd like to give a welcome to our two newest campers," Chiron announced to the dining hall, "Andraste-"

"ANDY!" interrupted a small girl at the "to-be-claimed" table.

Since the Gods had gotten much faster at claiming their children, Camp Half-Blood had put in a table for the children waiting to be claimed. Normally, kids would get claimed before the night was over.

"_Andy,_" Chiron corrected, "and Johnny."

Chiron pointed to the both of them at their table. The Athena kids were rolling their eyes and groaning; they must have figured she would be joining them tonight.

"Please treat them well. Before we eat, everyone please offer a portion of your food to the God of your choosing. To the Gods!" Chiron finished.

It was pizza night, Greek pizza with olives. I _hate _olives. I stood up and walked to the fires and dumped my whole pizza into the flames with a "Hades!"

Pretty sure I was the only one who ever gave an offering to Hades.

I walked back to my table and looked around. Dean was sitting on the edge of the Aphrodite table. All his brothers and sisters were gossiping and laughing, but Dean didn't fit in with his siblings. Tom was over at the Ares table arm wrestling with his siblings. Scott and Skylar were alone at their table, as was I. In fact, now that I think about it, Tom was the only real non-outcast of our group.

I yawned, still slightly drowsy from my nap. Jill was eating silently at the Zeus table. Don, the youngest kid in camp, was over at the Poseidon table. Pretty much all the other tables were full with Half-Bloods. Hermes, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, etcetera. All of their tables had at least 10 people each.

I sighed and waved my hand over my goblet and said "Mello Yello, extra carbonation," and my goblet filled with a greenish-yellow liquid that bubbled like someone had put pop rocks into it.

After everyone else had finished eating (and I had sat at my table, almost bored to death, no pun intended), we all started setting up for capture the flag. Andy and Johnny joined the red team, because they were the smallest group by about 5 members. She walked by me on the way to suit up and was talking a million miles a minute with an Athena kid. The boy was trying to focus on anything else but Andy.

"You all rested and ready to do this?" Scott asked as he approached me, cleaning his blade. Skylar was behind him. As I said, attached at the hip.

"Of course," I smiled.

"Good. You'll need to be fully rested. Shadow Travel takes a lot of energy."

"Yeah, and it's still not even _close_ to perfect. Don't expect an instant win."

"I'm sure you'll do great. I might be blue team's captain but without you we woulda' lost tons of times."

Scott had a point. When Tom launched an assault on our team last week I was guarding the flag. I managed to scare away over half of their forces just by giving them a mean look. The week before that, right before red team was about to get our flag over the boundary line, I trapped Tom and two of his siblings in bone. Even so I wasn't a person to get cocky or too sure of myself. Plus, the only skills I've really _mastered_ are summoning skeletons and making chasms. Can't exactly use chasms that often either, I didn't want to kill anyone.

"Just up boundary patrol for me? I don't want to get stuck there with the flag."

"Whatever you need," Scott smiled that "too-happy" smile he always got when he was overly-confident.

I rolled my eyes as I finished putting on my armor, and sheathed a small sword as a backup in case I would need to do some melee combat. Afterwards, we all marched out to the forest.

Dean was lined up a few yards away from our team. He was talking with the new girl, Andy, which was strange. He hates blabbermouths almost as much as he hates dead things, you can't blame him, though; all of his siblings are blabbermouths. But, for some reason, he was listening attentively to Andy.

"I'm worried about that one," Scott stated.

He had been next to me, both teams were walking in two single file lines.

"Who, Andy?" I asked.

"Yeah. Her. Do _not_ underestimate her."

"That's kind of hard," I sighed, "She's like… what? 5 feet tall. What's she gonna do, talk me to death?"

"About 4 foot 10, but that's not the point. If you actually _listen_ to what she says, she has some amazing battle plans. That's saying something for a probably-child-of-Athena."

Before I could respond, Chiron yelled above the crowd. "You all know the rules. The whole forest is fair game and the creek is the boundary line. Both flags must be noticeably displayed, but have no more than two guards. You are free to take prisoners, but may not bind or gag them. I am the referee and battlefield medic."

"RED TEAM, MOVE OUT!" Tom yelled out.

"Let's go blue team!" Scott announced.

I split from the group, heading to Zeus's Fist. Scott would take care of the defense as usual, which, this time would be more than perfect, since I was the only one who would be grabbing the flag. I would steal it right from under their noses.

"Well, here goes nothing…" I sighed to myself.

I focused on the darkness around me, which was much easier than the other times I'd tried to bend the darkness, due to the fact that it was night and everything was dark. I bent the shadows around me, turning myself invisible, and running towards the other teams flag.

As I turned around a tree to reach the flag, I noticed who was guarding it. Standing as sentinels guarding the flag was Dean and Andy. Andy had a newly acquired mace and Dean was standing with his bow at the ready. I was about ten yards away from them, but the moment I turned the corner Andy got a grim look on her face and told Dean something I couldn't hear.

Did they know I was there? How in Hades could they? I was invisible! They definitely didn't _see_ me, but somehow Andy _knew_ I, or maybe someone else, was close. Either way, if I could just get over there silently and grab the flag I was home free. Andy and Dean drew their weapons and prepared for battle.

I started creeping towards the flag slowly, but it still felt like Andy always had her eyes on me, trying to find my position. A distraction would really help right about now… Wait, distraction, I can do that. I focused my energy in the woods, and summoned skeletons, hidden by the trees. Then they crept out of the woods slowly and moved towards Dean and Andy.

"I knew it was her!" Andy yelled.

"Yeah, but, where is she?" Scott asked as he started shooting arrows at his newly acquired foes.

Distraction successful, I finished creeping towards the flag, faster now. There was battle noise coming from the boundary line, which was normal when you're playing capture the flag at Camp. I had crept around them and was right next to the flag when I realized I had a bigger problem. Where was I going to shadow travel?

Of course, to the boundary line, but I couldn't for the life of me picture our teams' side well enough. I would either transport to the right place, or to the opposite teams side _close_ to the boundary line. Well, didn't have much of a choice, my distraction would soon be through with. Andy was pounding away at the skeletons. Damn maces, they were always the most effective weapons against them.

"Where the heck are you?" Andy growled.

"Where _in Tartarus_ are you," Dean corrected her.

"What? Tartar sauce?"

Dean fell over as he tried to clarify "Tartaru-"

"Umm, Dean? Not funny!" Andy yelped.

I stopped my skeletons and made myself visible, still not completely sure if it was a trick, and went to help Dean.

"What did you _do_?" Andy demanded.

"I didn't do anything! Something is wrong!"

"Is he gonna be alright?"

I put my index and middle fingers to Deans neck, checking his pulse. I knew he was alive, but what happened? I put my hand over his chest to make sure he was breathing.

"CHIRON!" I yelled out.

Almost instantly the camp activities director appeared in front of us, his medicine pouch strapped to his side and his bow across his back.

"What happened here?" he asked, looking back and forth between me and Andy.

"He just fell," I cried out.

"_Obviously,_" Andy grumbled sarcastically.

"You got something you want to say Ms. Tartar Sauce? He's _my_ friend, not yours," I growled.

"Micah, Andy!" Chiron interrupted, "Please, we need to take care of Dean."

"Right, sorry," I said.

Chiron galloped over to Dean, knelt down, and put his hand over him. After a few seconds he muttered "He's asleep."

"How? He just fell asleep in the middle of a sentence?"

"I do not know, Micah, but this does not bode well. I'm afraid we'll have to cancel the game. I will bring Dean to the Big House," Chiron paused and picked Dean up and put him on his white stallion back half. "Juniper?"

A mid-sized girl popped out from what seemed like nowhere. This was the monster infested forest of Camp Half-Blood, but somehow I still wasn't _completely _used to things jumping out at me. At least this one wasn't going to try to kill me.

"Yes, Chiron?" the girl asked.

"Would you alert the other nymphs and forest-spirits and get them to stop the game?"

"Sure thing," she smiled brightly and disappeared.

"Micah, please gather the other counselors and bring them all to the Big House."

I nodded in response as Chiron turned to clip-clop off. He started slow then went into a quick trot and then disappeared in the flash of an eye.

The sounds of battle slowly faded. Things had to have been bad (_bad_ is a term used rather lightly around here, but still) if I had to go and gather the counselors. And what was I going to do with Andy?

"Go to the Big House and _wait for me,_" I said sternly.

"But-"

"Just do it!"

Andy stormed off back towards camp huffing "FINE!"

Let's see. Clarisse is out on a quest, so Tom would be filling in as camp counselor. Then there was me, Scott and Skylar, and Dean, who was passed out. Then, of course, the ten other cabins counselors.

First thing, I ran down to the edge of the forest and was met by almost all the campers, about a hundred and fifty in all, heading back towards their cabins. I saw Tom, Scott and Skylar in the front of the group, and alerted the other ten camp counselors as I walked by.

"What happened?" Tom asked as I approached them.

"Dean…" I paused and sighed, "He just passed out in the middle of battle."

Scott frowned and then said worriedly, "That's not like him at all."

"I know. Chiron told all the camp counselors to head to the Big House for an immediate meeting."

"Well, we better get going," Tom smiled, "I sense a quest."

When we all got down to the Big House the other ten counselors were waiting for us. I didn't do a full head count, but I thought it was all ten. I told Andy to wait for us outside. She fought back but it took one "Micah's Original Look of Death" and she got the message. Afterwards everyone trampled inside and we met Chiron on the first floor.

"Good. Everyone's here," Chiron sighed. Dean was sprawled out on an armchair, asleep.

All of a sudden the door in back of us all burst open.

"Sorry I'm late," said the mousy voice of a small girl. She had on a camp T-shirt, poofy pajama pants with all sizes of Z's littering them in design, and long black hair reaching to her waist. She carried a short sword limply.

Crud. I had completely forgotten Susie! Again!

Susie, you see, was the counselor of the Hypnos Cabin. Most people forgot about her, but not on purpose. Her full name was Suscitatio, Latin for Awake, the fact of her Dad being the God of dreams was rather ironic. But, knowing her, it fit perfectly. She was the only one of her siblings who wasn't sleeping _at least_ 20 hours a day. Plus, she had gone on a quest, which was why she was the counselor of her cabin.

"Ah, Susie, just who we needed!" Chiron said excitedly. I wasn't sure if he was trying to hide the fact that he had forgotten her, too.

"Why would you need me?" she asked nervously.

"Dean has fallen into a deep sleep, Susie. I was thinking you might be able to help him out of it."

"But…"

Susie looked scared and nervous due to all the attention.

"You can do it, Susie," I tried to raise her self-esteem, which was kind of awkward for a child of Hades, "You're the best expert on sleep and dreams at Camp!"

"Yeah, but…"

"No but's!" I grabbed her hand and pulled her to Dean.

Susie sighed and finally gave in. She put her hands on Deans forehead, pushing back his blond hair. We all waited a few seconds then she gasped.

"What? What's wrong?" I tried to stay calm, but it came out more like a demand.

"He's in a dream message. I got one from my Dad once. It's way different getting a dream message from a god specializing in dreams, but it's definitely a dream message. I can't take him out of it, but he'll wake up soon."

"Well, that is good news," Chiron stated, trying to keep the mood positive, "Thank you, Susie."

"No problem," Susie blushed, "Umm… I'm gonna go… somewhere."

Susie rushed out of the building. Susie was always shy, but you shouldn't underestimate her. She put me to sleep once in a fight, and I didn't wake up for three days.

After a few minutes everyone split into their own groups and started chitchatting randomly. I went and sat down in a chair next to Dean. I wasn't really tired. Then again, I wasn't ever tired unless I overexerted myself in battle. A few more minutes later Chiron decided it was pretty much pointless to keep the other counselors here and sent everyone but Tom, Scott, Skylar and me back to their cabins for bed.

"Who do you think sent him a dream message?" Scott asked.

We had all gotten around a table with Chiron in his magical wheelchair.

"His mother, Aphrodite, most likely," Chiron sighed, "The question I seek answers for is why? What was so urgent?"

"Maybe she broke a nail," Tom scoffed.

"I don't think the Goddess of love and beauty _can_ break a nail."

"CAN I COME IN YET?" yelled a voice from outside the door with a few loud knocks.

"Ugh," I groaned.

Chiron motioned to Tom to get the door.

"Why is-"

"Don't ask…" I interrupted Scott.

Tom opened the door and Andy burst into the Big House. "Gee, thanks. Now can someone tell me what's going on? I've been here less than a day and someone's passed out, I still don't know who my mom is, and about a million other things I don't have time to list."

Before any of us could answer Dean groaned loudly and we all turned to face him. He sprang out of his seat with a look of terror and gasped "Mother!"


End file.
